Plans are underway to establish a Bone Marrow Transplant Centre in Ghana at a cost of approximately $11 million (GH₵177 million), the Vice President of the Leukaemia Foundation Project, Peter Osei-Tutu, has disclosed.

Mr Osei-Tutu made the revelation on JoyNews’ AM Show on Monday, December 15, while discussing the recent JoyNews documentary, ‘Leukaemia: Last Chance Abroad’. He explained that the centre aims to address significant gaps in leukaemia treatment within the country and minimize the need for patients to seek expensive care overseas.

“The whole project, with equipment for the centre, would cost us about $11 million, which is about GH177 million,” he stated.

The Foundation is aiming to commence construction in February of the coming year. “We’re hoping to break ground for the project sometime in February,” Mr Osei-Tutu added.

However, he highlighted fundraising as a primary obstacle to achieving the anticipated two-year completion timeline. “It’s very important that we’re able to also raise enough money to basically complete it within the two-year period that we’re anticipating,” he emphasized.

According to Mr. Osei-Tutu, the JoyNews documentary served as a stark reminder of the limitations in Ghana’s current leukaemia treatment capabilities. “As you saw from the documentary, there are quite a lot of gaps in the sense that not every aspect of treatment is actually able to be done in the country,” he said.

He believes the specialised centre will lessen the financial and emotional strain on families who are currently forced to travel abroad for treatment. “Families like the lady in the documentary would not have to travel outside the country and be by themselves,” he explained. “Treatment at home allows patients to remain close to family support.”

While acknowledging existing treatment options in Ghana, Mr Osei-Tutu stressed the unavailability of critical procedures. “There are different aspects when it becomes very critical. There are a lot of ways we can suppress the disease, but we don’t have every single amenity here,” he stated. “Bone marrow transplant, cell transplant, all these things are very important that we’re able to do them here in Ghana rather than having families travel outside the country.”

Mr. Osei-Tutu admitted fundraising had proven difficult, despite some support from corporate entities like Stanbic and Ecobank. “Raising funds to do some of these things in Ghana is very difficult,” he said.

He made a passionate appeal for funding from both corporate bodies and individuals. “There’s a need for corporate bodies and individuals as well to basically try to help us raise enough money to complete it,” he urged, stating that leukaemia can affect anyone.

Encouraging broad public participation, he added, “Even if it’s a cedi that you put in, you’ve also contributed to saving a life. You donate, the project is done, you go past it and you say, I was part of this.”

Mr Osei-Tutu underscored the urgency of completing the centre, describing leukaemia as a “very critical disease.” “It’s very important that we’re able to raise enough money to complete this in the shortest possible time because it’s a very critical disease and it’s very important that we’re able to help people,” he stated.

He shared a deeply personal reason for his commitment to the project: “My elder brother died of leukaemia. So I know first-hand how important it is to get this thing off the ground so that we can save more people.”

He also noted a positive shift in public understanding of cancer in Ghana. “Cancer before wasn’t a very big thing in Ghana. People didn’t really know about it. People are now finding out that these are silent killers.”

Finally, Mr Osei-Tutu commended JoyNews for bringing national attention to the issue. “What JoyNews is doing is helping people understand what sort of disease we’re dealing with and how important it is to put something up that’s going to help alleviate people’s problems,” he said.

Image Source: MYJOYONLINE